Email from Professor Masayoshi Yamamoto, Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology at Kanazawa University about the analysis of dust off the metal plate that had been left outside since the March 11, 2011 accident, as reported by the blog:

測定結果をお送りします。Puが検出され、正直なところびっくりしました。

Here's the result of the analysis. Frankly, I am surprised that plutonium was detected.

Plutonium has been spread and deposited at low densities in wide areas because of the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons . The ratio of plutonium isotopes, Pu238/Pu239+240, of the atmospheric testing origin is about 0.03. But this time [dusts off the metal plate in Iwaki City], this ratio is higher at 0.8, indicating the dusts contain plutonium of the Fukushima I Nuke Plant origin.

The government estimate of the ratio of these plutonium isotopes is 3. Considering the plutonium of the atmospheric testing origin is not attached to the metal plate, I wonder why the ratio is lower than the government estimate. It is possible that not all plutonium isotopes released had the ratio of 3, and there were plutonium isotopes with the lower ratio (0.8) that were released from the plant.

Further, the ratio of Pu239+240/Cs-137 is 9.0E-5, which is 200 times the government estimate of 4.3E-7, showing more plutonium being detected than the government estimate indicates. It is probably because of fractionation.

(中略)現在ウラン、出来れば Am-241なども分析できればと考えています。

Right now, I am hoping to test for uranium, and Am-241 if possible.

The report by Professor Yamamoto, from the same blog:

Cesium detection:

Plutonium. Pu-242 is a tracer for chemical yield correction. [-- Don't ask me what it means. I translated as best I can.]

I am asking Professor Yamamoto to confirm that this is his analysis report.

Atomfritz is right. On the first picture you can see he is writing something about NHO3 it is easier to understand actually if you write HNO3 (which would be according to IUPAC nomenclature) - which means he used nitric acid (also called aqua fortis). So probably the sample was actually boiled in HNO3 for a few minutes (this is called an oxidative acidic digestion) and than the remaining solids (mainly silica = sand) were filtered off. Now all (more correct most of) the plutomium is in the solution and you can handle it easier. But as Atomfrizt pointed out, this chemical reaction is not always 100% so you need to add something to the sample prior to the acidic digestion as a reference.

I am still not sure why he used a Ge detector thou. Once you have the Pu in solution it would be more sensitive to use a scintillation counter. The only advantage I can see in using Ge detection is to be able to get the KeV of the gamma rays, thus to distinguish between PU 239/240 and 238.

Just a warning, do not do an oxidative acidic digestion at home, there are lots of nasty fumes coming out of the boiling solution (it will foam and bubble massively). You do not want to inhale all that, otherwise there IS AN IMMEDIATE EFFECT ON YOUR HEALTH. ;-)

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Even though there is tons of plutonium in both the MOX fuel and the spent fuel, the ratio of Pu to U in Global Dirts analysis cannot be explained by any reactions in known inventories, as no U was detected and only high levels of Cs137, Pu and Am 241 were. This is the kind of ratio you would see if an HE exploded in a nuclear weapon accidently, releasing unfissioned plutonium.

About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

About This Site

Well, this was, until March 11, 2011. Now it is taken over by the events in Japan, first earthquake and tsunami but quickly by the nuke reactor accident. It continues to be a one-person (me) blog, and I haven't even managed to update the sidebars after 5 months... Thanks for coming, spread the word.------------------This is an aggregator site of blogs coming out of SKF (double-short financials ETF) message board at Yahoo.

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